1. Field
The present invention relates to a low cost parabolic solar concentrator and method to develop the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
To produce a conventional parabolic solar concentrator, a single plate is normally used. However, producing the conventional parabolic solar concentrator from the single plate is difficult and expensive. When force is applied to an edge portion of the single plate and/or a middle portion of the single plate, the single plate would be in a sinusoidal shape, and prone to being over bent or under bent. The single plate would not be in a parabolic shape. Thus, incremental force has to be applied to the single plate to ensure that the single plate is in the parabolic shape. In addition, the single plate has to be smoothed out to ensure that there are no lumps from the incremental force so that the single plate can be used to concentrate light. However, this method is generally expensive and inaccurate since it is difficult to repetitively apply the incremental force and repetitively smooth out the single plate in order to form the conventional parabolic solar concentrator.
Alternatively, parabolic molds can be used. However, each parabolic mold is generally expensive to produce. While this may be acceptable for a conventional parabolic solar concentrator with only a single size and shape, it is unacceptable if the conventional parabolic solar concentrators are in multiple sizes and shapes. This is because each size or shape of the conventional parabolic solar concentrators would require a different mold, which can rapidly increase expenses. Therefore, this approach is also undesirable.
Thus, there is a need for a low cost parabolic solar concentrator and method to develop the same.